Star Command: Revolution
Star Command: Revolution is a real-time strategy game by Metropolis Digital, Inc., now Metro3D, Inc., and published by GT Interactive. It was originally released in 1996 for DOS, but it was re-released in 1998 for Windows 95/98 under the title Star Command Deluxe. A sequel, Star Command X: Armada, was hinted at upon successful completion of the campaign mode, but it was never produced. However, a game called Armada was produced for Dreamcast, and later the makers of that game went on to make Armada Online. There are some direct links in these two games to the Star Command series, including sounds, music, and some storyline elements. Another real-time strategy game known as StarCraft was released two years after Star Command: Revolution, and quickly overshadowed it. One reviewer, writing before the release of StarCraft, predicted that Star Command would do better since it had been released first. The main storyline follows an interspecies conflict in the Zeta galaxy after the discovery of an energy resource called "Solinite." The races, previously coexisting in peace, begin fighting each other for control of the Solinite, until several political assassinations allow the tyrannical warlord Narvek to take over the galaxy. A small group of rebels who call themselves "Star Command" fight back against Narvek in an effort to dethrone him and restore peace to the Gameplay galaxy. The nonlinear campaign mode places the player in control of a mothership commandeered by Star Command, with the objective of destroying Narvek. This mothership is the only ship that can collect resources and build other stations and ships. The campaign is lost if the player allows the mothership to be destroyed. The first battle is in a sector called "Star Command HQ". Each campaign battle is a separate such sector, where the player must build enough ships to conquer the enemies' battalions. Most sectors have an objective, most of which simply involve destroying enemies, which give the player various bonuses upon completion, such as increasing the mothership's harvesting rate. The battles increase in difficulty as the player nears Narvek's base. There are 31 sectors in all, and only the mothership can travel between sectors Each battle begins with the sector completely obscured by fog of war. Areas the player explores become permanently visible, regardless of whether the player has any ships in that area. Ships Every ship and station has a set of four vital statistics: shield, tech, engine, and control. The "shield" statistic is how much damage the ship can stand before it is destroyed; once depleted, the ship explodes. "Tech" is what allows a ship to fire; reducing this tends to make a ship fire less often. "Engine" is a representative of how fast the ship can move; reducing this causes ships to move more sluggishly than normal. "Control" is a statistic, that, like "shield," has little effect until it is completely reduced; when this occurs, the ship defects to the side of the ship that dealt the last control damage (and restores some control). Each race has a set of 16 constructible ships and stations, some of which are similar across each race, such as a base, which is necessary for building ships, a university, which trains ships and teaches the mothership new technology necessary for building new ships, and a fighter carrier, which launches three smaller fighter ships at enemies within range. Each ship and station has a cost, which consists of various amounts of Solinite, time (not time to build, but time a player must wait before building again), and a resource specific to each race. Destroying a ship or station other than the mothership will leave behind an "Engine Core," which is a small amount of Solinite, and some of the race-specific resource. Players start with the ability to build only 1 ship and 3 stations which are all similar for each race: the base, the university, a guardpost (a station that fires at enemies), and a "scout" class ship. The scout is the only type of ship which can break "pack" Solinite into smaller pieces that can be collected by the mothership. Other than the mothership, ships have 7 "levels" of skill, which can be increased through combat, or up to level 4 by placing the ship next to a university. Higher levels give bonuses to the ships, such as a higher rate of fire or multiple shots at a time. Placing the mothership next to a race's university allows it to learn that race's technology, i.e. more ships and stations. Once all of a race's technologies have been discovered, the mothership will next learn how to build another race's base. Building this will allow the player to build that race's university, allowing the player to learn even more technology. Multiplayer modes The game features a multiplayer battle mode, which is a single skirmish between two to four human or AI players. The game includes support for playing over a LAN or the Internet (an IPX-compatible card is necessary, however). Additionally, the game includes support for a two-player campaign. However, GT Interactive has admitted that it is not possible to load a saved two-player campaign. Cheat Codes In Star Command: Revolution, the following cheat codes can be activated from the credits screen. A sound effect will play to confirm a successful code entry. *F1 F1 F1 F10 - Your Mothership will now look like a Computron Mothership *F3 F2 F3 F10 - Your Mothership will now look like a Nomad Mothership *F2 F3 F3 F10 - Your Mothership will now look like a Triumverite Mothership *F4 F1 F1 F10 - Your Mothership will now look like a Terran Mothership *F4 F4 F1 F10 - Your Mothership will now look like the Secret Mothership